Yesterday (Thursday 11th July), the public consultation concluded on draft Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) guidance published by the previous government. The need for inclusive, high quality RSHE is more important than ever, but we are deeply concerned that, rather than improving the quality of RSHE, the draft guidance restricts preventative education and leaves children and young people at increased risk of both becoming victims but also perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence.
We urge the government to abandon these proposals, revert to the 2019 guidance in the interim and undertake a more appropriate review in due course. This review must:
- Prioritise prevention, ensuring a sequential curriculum enables children and young people to learn about healthy and unhealthy relationships. It cannot be restricted to one-off sessions or specific educational stages, but should be a continuous process.
- Ensure the curriculum is grounded in evidence, research and best practice, inclusive of all young people.
- Prioritise support and training for teachers and schools, and give schools the funding and support to engage third parties with specialist expertise to support their RSHE education.
We have submitted evidence to the public consultation explaining our concerns in more detail: view Tender’s full response.
We are proud to have joined over 100 organisations in a joint statement calling on the new government to abandon the draft guidance and start afresh, focusing on children and young people’s safeguarding, using best available evidence and supporting teachers to deliver a high-quality, inclusive curriculum.
We have also created a joint briefing with EVAW for Members of Parliament which sets out our concerns about the negative impact we believe the draft guidance will have on violence against women and girls.
Susie McDonald, CEO of Tender, says:
‘It is vital that RSHE is taught as a spiral curriculum built by experts who understand how to prevent violence against women and girls. Effective RSHE will enable children and young people to build their knowledge and skills over the course of their education and which relates to their own experiences and levels of maturity and which is therefore always relevant, safe and effective.’
Find out more about our campaign for quality for high quality, inclusive RSHE.
